O Canada, my home and native land was recently ranked second behind Australia in a survey of the best national brands, according to tourism and branding experts FutureBrand. The ranking is based on establishing a reputation as a safe, friendly destination for families. Having lived most of my life in Canada, I can only clearly understand the brand from a distance. Seeing your country from another country demonstrates the difference. At the end of the day, I do love my country and its brand promise. Eh!
This is always a brand steward’s nightmare. Boardrooms talk about the importance of innovation to keep the company vibrant and ahead of the game. Yet many companies translate this into change simply for the sake of change. Without clearly understanding the brand relationship with the customers change can be fatal to a brand.
Wendy’s is an example of how a brand lost its way with the sudden death of its founder, Dave Thomas, in 2002. The company continues to struggle to find its brand voice without Dave leading the way. This is often a problem when the owner/founder of a company is also part of the brand.
The biggest dilemma facing many brands is internal boredom. The desire to change the look and feel of a brand. The need to make it new and modern. The aspiration for brand managers to put their own mark onto the brand. Make sure the purpose for making changes to your brand is clearly understood and doesn’t attempt to change the brand’s DNA.
Pizza Hut has been struggling trying to find its brand positioning (a very costly way of understanding how the brand is connecting with its customers). Unfortunately, they keep changing the messaging and executions in the hope of connecting to their customers. They should spend more time and money on understanding their relationship with their customers than continually changing their advertising direction.
Brand line extensions are another brand folly. There are some natural and obvious line extensions and there are some ambitious attempts to get customers further embracing the brand. Virgin Group Ltd., the parent company’s to the over 200 Virgin branded company under the control of its billionaire founder, Sir Richard Branson, has shown that a relevant brand position can extend beyond many business sectors ranging from mobile telephones, to transportation, travel, financial services, leisure, music, holidays, publishing and the list goes on. If you visit the Virgin Group website they state that “Virgin stands for value for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge.” It is through these brand values that allow the Virgin brand to transcend across a multitude of businesses as a unique and distinct brand. While BIC pens brand promise didn’t allow them to extend their brand into pantyhose (what where they thinking!). They did successfully extend the BIC brand to water sports equipment (go figure!). Whoever heard of disposal surf boards?
The more unique, relevant and credible the brand promise is, the greater the chance its brand extension will be successful. That’s why Paul Newman’s food products succeed and Willie Nelson Biodiesel Fuel and Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong mutual funds failed. Consumers may love Nelson's music and respect Armstrong for his many “Tour de France” cycling races; their brand promise has no connection with consumers concerning car engines and finance.The moral of this story is don’t mess around with a successful brand unless you truly understand the brand connection with its consumers. The Virgin Group’s example shows how a brand promise is bigger than a product (a plane, cell phone etc) but is intricately linked to the core values that drive the entire Virgin group of products. This brand promise connects each product strongly to the brand and to the consumer. A Virgin medical centre may not succeed.
“Sin City” is everything decadent with a dark-side that an obscene amount of money brings. Converged on a dessert street is everything that makes America great and everything that makes it ugly. The opulence and the grandeur is overwhelming, I am reminded how sad this projects humanity. I don’t necessary like Las Vegas but I am drawn into the glitz and glamour of it all.
It’s like driving by an accident with the uncontrollable urge to look. There are nuances of this brand that are inviting and stimulating; yet uncontrollably, you quickly seem to over indulge and leave less rich on all levels. All that being said, it has a strong and clear brand promise.
New York City is one of the great cities in the world that has successfully branded itself. What is the first image that comes to mind when you hear the name New York City? “The Big Apple,” I hope.
Tourism is big business in attracting affluent travelers to spend money in your city. In 2007, New York saw over 46 million tourists come to see, shop, eat, sleep and be entertained. If each person spent $1,000 (which would be cheap in Manhattan) that would equal $4.6 billion. So branding big cities is big business.
But how do you create a brand image for such a complex beast? Remember a brand is part personality, part single mindedness. What you want to do is own a place in the consumers mind. How do you take a city and boil it down to one simple and relevant thought? Well, many cities have done it. The most romantic city is? The city where what happens there stays there? Or how about a city fit for a queen. Then here is the city within a city that rules Catholics around the world. Which city is the fashion capital, the fine dining capital or the music capital of the world?
The hard part is boiling a massive city down to a simple sentence or words that articulate its promise. The hard part is finding that one thing that defines a city because most cities have many attributes and landmarks: symbolic buildings (Eiffel tower, the White House, CN tower, Sydney Opera House, Roman Colosseum), icons (a white wooden sign, a white cross, a orange bridge) and unique environmental characteristics (beach, mountain, river, waterway). But remember, a brand is owned by the consumer so when you show them a gondola with a gondolianer they will think Venice or maybe Las Vegas cheap imitation. A city eventually gets defined by what is the most memorable feature or collective customer benefit. The clearer the feature or benefit the stronger the brand.
How would the city of Sidney, Australia be viewed today with out the Sidney Opera House and Crocodile Dundee? Not only are the city attributes important, but the peoples’ lifestyle and the dynamic quality of energy is vital in building a vibrant and engaging city brand. Sometimes this can be kick started by a global event such as the World Expo, FIFA World Cup or the Olympic Games. The FIFA World Cup soccer event can attract over 28.8 billion viewers over the month. The more concentrated Olympic Games can catapult a city to the global stage. The coverage so far on Beijing, China is staggering. On the Beijing Official 2008 Olympic website it states that “over 300 channels broadcasting the Athens 2004 Olympic Games to 220 countries and territories, 35,000 hours of dedicated coverage (2000 per day), to over 3.9 billion people (unduplicated).” This was the strongest Olympic broadcast ever.
As globalization continues to make the world smaller, the competition between cities has increased tremendously for tourists, investors, businesses and major events, so maintaining and building a city brand is paramount.
The Anholt-GMI City Brands Index, is an annual survey which measures the strength of a city’s brand. The Index was co-created by branding expert Simon Anholt and global market research solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) The Index is unique because it demonstrates how we respond to city brands in exactly the same way as when we're shopping for cars or clothing brands.
This is a highly charged and vibrant brand that flourishes every two years. The Olympic brand explodes with emotions from both the athletes and spectators from around the world. There are winners and losers and many surprised outcomes as the magic of the Olympics spurs on new world records and personal bests. Since 1896 this enduring brand came alive every fours years both winter and summer, but most recently the brand has adopted a two year interval alternating between the winter and summer games.
I was fortunate enough to have a first-hand experience with the Olympics as an escort runner in the 1988 Winter Olympics Torch Relay in Canada. I ran for four days through small towns and large cities in Ontario. My first experience was running into London, Ontario one cold winter’s night. The streets were lined three people deep. Many people waving flags and lit candles to mimic the torch. I was amazed how the torch mesmerizes the audience as if it was the holy light of life. As I proceed into the city an old lady broke out from the crowd and came towards me with open arms, she hug me and said “god bless you” then returned into the crowd. I was stunned by the experience and truly understood the emotional power of the Olympics…it is about hope, perseverance and endurance – all based on human capability and drive (plus any steroids). This is a unique brand that is savored on special occasion not unlike a great bottle of champagne.
Only three months have passed but it seems much longer...not in a negative way but in a way that this project has become a part of my life. I am always thinking about the next branding article and filtering what I see and hear with a view to branding. I have done little on SEO and building site traffic. There seems to be a network of cross linking developing as my articles get pick-up on other directory website and other blogs. Not surprising my most successful article has been “Building Your Brand on Sex”. Go figure…sex sells. Interestingly, several websites that track celebrities have pick-up the reference of Calvin Klein. So this article keeping getting exposure (pun intended) on a number of websites.
I finally found the courage to ask my social marketing consultants to comment on my blog. Here is what they had to say:
Dave Knox writes:
Hey Derrick Looks like your blog is going great. Just finished reading many of the articles and I really enjoyed it. Keep up the good work!
Dave
Trisha Okubo writes:
Checked out your blog, and overall it looks great! Comments below:
- Move the about blurb above the fold. - Increase the size of the text. Lots of small text can be hard on the eyes - Add more pictures! I know it can be a challenge to find great pictures for your topic, but it's worth it. Pictures draw people in to your blog, and they help to break up the text. - Where possible, try bullet points or numbered lists, or pull quotes. Or even bolding important points. This will help give your text more life. - Once you have more posts, I'd recommend a related posts plugin to help recirculate traffic to older posts. Your content is evergreen, and it doesn't really get stale...so people would benefit from reading stuff from your archives. Hope that helps, Derrick!
Great feedback! Thanks guys for your input and suggestions. So I continue to build my personal brand.
The BlackBerry, made in Canada, is a wireless handheld device introduced in 1997 that now services over 135 countries. It is a fixture at every table (boardroom, office, kitchen, even dining rooms & bedrooms). In most cases, it is not visible to all but is obscurely hidden under the table, but every few minutes it user keeps an eye on it. This brand is additives which mean it is truly a lasting brand. It has accomplished what ever company wants - an employee working 24/7 without complaining. Blackberry has it all: It is highly functional and carries the badge of business success. “I am technically suave” is telepaths to anyone in view. So much so, that non business people are buying them too (mostly rich teens). The big question is when will the 14 million zombies wake up and realize they are just another pawn in the big corporate mill and start turning off their BB. Sorry but I have to get back to my BB. This brand is a keeper for now in my brand cellar because I can't live without it.
Most of what I’m going to say is common sense. But it is amazing how many brands confronted with a disaster or crisis either hide their head in the sand with the hopes it will all blow over or just do stupid things. Today, with the advent of online media and social marketing, a small issue can turn very big in a matter of hours.
If you think your business and your reputation are in danger, then it's time to act, whether the problem is widely known or acknowledged by your employees, your customers or the media. If handled well, a crisis response can actually enhance reputation and spur some needed dialogue and change.
Tim Hortons (see Brand Note below) has found first hand how quickly things can go south. An employee firing became national news and had over 488 online posting. Two weeks after this incident, a good Samaritan bought breakfast for a pregnant homeless woman at a Tim Hortons – then was scolded by a restaurant employee unhappy that the homeless woman stayed in the restaurant to eat. This story was the next in a line of negative media for Tim Hortons.
It seems that the media is ready and eager to report the next Tim Hortons crisis. All it takes is a disgruntled customer or employee to voice their concerns online or directly to the media.
Almost 26 years ago, in a space of three days beginning Sept. 29, 1982, seven people who took cyanide-laced Tylenol died. This event triggered a national scare that prompted people to throw medicine away and stores nationwide to pull Tylenol from their shelves. Today, every time you open a bottle or package (of medicine, food or drink) there is a tamper proof lid or seal because of this highly publicized Tylenol crisis. Johnson & Johnson, owner of the Tylenol brand, was praised by the media at the time for its handling of the incident. While the market share of Tylenol collapsed from 35% to 8%, it rebounded in less than a year, a move credited to J&J's prompt and aggressive reaction. They didn’t hesitate or waffle. They saw the urgency to respond quickly and they did.
While in 1994, Intel’s Pentium microprocessor chip was discovered to incorrectly divide certain floating-point numbers. This was a case of ignore it and it will go away. Not so, it quickly became a media crisis that Intel had to handle but again they took the approach that it wasn’t a major issue (they had no intent of replacing the chip). Media press continued and IBM, one of their largest customers, responded by stopping the shipment of computer’s containing the Intel Pentium chip. Eventually, Intel replaced the chip but only after the damage had been done to the company’s reputation and ultimately to the brand.
The most important element to protecting a brand under crisis is to have a proactive plan. You should anticipate a number of scenarios such as: employee misconduct, product liability/misuse, manufacturing or design mistakes, accidents, or a simple community/media misunderstanding. Unprepared organizations flounder under the stress of the immediate need to communicate internally and externally. Their struggle can be interpreted as hiding and perceived as admitting guilt. How you eventually respond should be guided by the brand’s values.
Key elements in building a crisis communications plan:
- Define who is responsible for what during a crisis - Identify key spokespeople (the more senior the bigger the issue – ultimately the CEO) - Develop rules of how information is released - Develop specific steps of action to correct/fix the problem, mistake or mishap - Provide background information on specifics - Execute clear communications tactics for employees, customers, stakeholders and media - Be transparent; give the facts, admit your mistake and apologize - Communicate, communicate, communicate JetBlue, a low fare airline suffered a major brand crisis last year after an ice storm hit the Eastern United States and the airline failed to properly respond due to a communications meltdown. Nine planes sat on New York’s JFK tarmac for six hours or more. Nearly a quarter of its flights had to be canceled, even days later and service to 11 cities was shutdown entirely. The result was a consumer revolt, media frenzy and a stock collapse.
Immediately after the incident The JetBlue posted a video clip on ‘You Tube.’ where the CEO, addressing key stakeholders. Here is what he said.
Rebuilding reputation is important to rebuilding the brand. What JetBlue did was have the CEO apologize then designed a crisis communications plan to avoid or quickly address the issue and any further crisis’ on the horizon. One of the first things they did was launch a customer bill of rights that promised to compensate customers for delays. Respecting customer’s time, what a novel idea! I wish more airlines would do this.
Make sure you communications are sincere and meaningful. Sending out a news release with sorry doesn’t cut it. Syncrude Canada Ltd., who operates the largest oil sands mine in the world, recently cooked in hot water when 500 ducks died in the toxic sludge of an oil sands tailings pond. There solution: print a full page newspaper ad with an apology. Syncrude says it's committed to making sure such a "sad event" doesn't happen again. I’m sorry, but this type of tactic doesn’t come across as sincere or believable. They should have saved their advertising money and spent the time on a clear action plan. While advertising is good at getting messages out quickly, advertising can’t build credibility.
The fortunate thing for most brands is customers have short memories. In most cases, things will go back to normal unless your company was Enron or WorldCom.
When my son was asked in school what makes Canada different from other countries he said “Tim Hortons.” I guess, to many Canadians, Tim’s is one of the brands that reflect our cultural roots. Their coffee has a clean mellow taste that is identifiable with many people who just want a simple cup of coffee without any attitude. No surprise, Tim Hortons was build by a professional hockey defenseman Tim Horton who played in the National Hockey League for 24 seasons until his death in a car accident. His business partner, Ron Joyce, a former Hamilton police constable, continued to build the business to over 2,700 outlets across Canada. The Tim Hortons experience is friendly and down to earth, operated by everyday Canadians and provides good, straightforward coffee with no foreign words thrown in. Tim Hortons epitomize the Canada culture, wholesome, plain and not flashy. Just ask for a double, double.
We are all surround by acronyms and meaningless letters. Every business and industry has its acronyms and initials. Today, we all need a decoder ring to make sense of all the abbreviations and acronyms. Actually, there is a website Acronym Finder dedicated to decoding acronyms and abbreviations with more than 4 million definitions. We don’t even notice how many initials and acronyms we use in a day like, 24/7, WWW, LOL, TBD, ASAP, FYI, ROI, FAQ and SOL, to name a few.
After Y2K and the DotCom bubble there seem to be a trend for companies to move towards acronyms and initials to reinvent themselves, such as: The Hudson Bay Company (HBC), The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), British Petroleum (BP) and Bank of Montreal (BMO).
Some did this to expand into new markets where English was not the primary language or to remove words that made the company seem too regional, old and not global.
There have also been brands that have had a long life as initials such as: GE, IBM, HP, BMW, UPS, SAP, AT&T, H&M, MSN and VW, to name a few. IKEA is an interesting acronym that was made up from the founder’s initials I.K. (Ingvar Kamprad). The E came from the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and the A from his home county (Agunnaryd in Sweden).
The charm of initials and acronyms are their simplicity. There is no need to memorize several words, especially if they are long and difficult to pronounce (especially German words). They can easily be communicated in many languages, cultures and countries. Graphically, initials and acronyms can create a strong design mark that can also convey emotional dynamics and can be legally protected.
The main problem is they mean nothing upfront. Remember your first day in a new company – all those nonsensical abbreviations…all just a scramble of letters. Over time, you had to load each with meaning and build a mind library of what each letter represented if you could actually remember the literal words.
Small and medium size companies can’t afford the time and money to build a brand from initials and acronyms, unless the initial or acronym is very unique and memorable.
However, there is a way to cheat by using the initials/acronym as a design mark with the words that represent the initials. Consulting firms like law, advertising, architectural, where the people are the differentiating USP tend to use the founders names as the brand. For survive purposes, they must abbreviate the brand name to simple letters or acronyms to help the customer. Just make sure the final initials/acronym does not spell words you couldn’t say in front of your mother. But then are are those that want to push the limit like the popular FCUK which stands for “French Connection UK” a trendy clothing store.
Today, people automatically gravitate to simple initials and acronyms to save their typing thumbs. Many companies have also abbreviated their company names to have more memorable URL addresses that can be easily typed.
The WWW, emails, chat rooms and text messaging has created a new abbreviated language and with that new brand names. BB (Bye Bye).
This is a brilliant, ever changing brand with layers and layers of complexity. I love this brand and I love my iPod & iTunes. It’s universal in its simple, clean and approachable design (the electronic version of IKEA but with more elegance). In Canada and around the world, enthusiastic customers lined up at stores to purchase their first iPhone 3G last Friday. Media outlets were just as excited and covered the big day with images and stories of excited customers eager to spend their money. You can’t buy this type of brand hype. This is a brand that is big and bold and in your face. Apple is a keeper in any brand cellar.
Does that answer surprise you? Did you expect someone devoted to branding to say these words?
If your brand is religiously-consistent in its execution and brand values, it should be running itself. No action required. Live up to the hype and consumers will respect that.
I find most company’s who spend wads of cash on brand studies and consultants primarily do so to fix a problem. Something happened to deviate from the original brand promise or values. Someone at the company introduced a new positioning, changed the product over time or added a new line extension without understanding the dynamics of the consumer’s relationship. Some company’s make changes because they can, or better yet, because they are bored with the same old. There isn’t anything wrong with updating a brand to make it relevant and current, but don’t change it unless the customer gives you permission.
Remember, the brand lives in the customer’s mind. It’s their relationship with your company or product(s). Keep doing what you’ve been successful doing and the brand will continue to grow – understanding if the product or service is continuing to fulfill a need.
But if you need to change (technology, competitive realities, boss tells you to) you must understand the covenant bond between your brand and the customer. Otherwise you might be better off starting a completely new product brand or company to avoid confusion. You also want to position the new idea as something first in the consumer’s mind; which is hard to do when transferring from an existing brand. Many companies try to transfer heavily-invested brand equity to a new product, only to watch it fail. The problem: as consumers, we associate a brand in our mind file as a simple word, term or value so it can be easily retrieved for future reference. As change may be an easy and exciting option to execute for a company, the consumer’s mind file might find the change confusing, difficult and a downright break-up to the relationship.
The Xerox brand became synonymous with photocopying. People would say they were “Xeroxing a copy.” Eventually photocopying was replaced by the internet. The company has been trying for years to shift to the document company. I don’t know how successful they have made the transition over the last 15 years in changing the mind file.
George Eastman coined the slogan "you press the button, we do the rest," in marketing the first simple film camera in 1888. In so doing, he made a cumbersome and complicated process easy to use and accessible to nearly everyone. Since that time, technology has abandoned the complicated film process to digital that is everywhere. Today, Kodak is trying to find there new brand positioning. Like Xerox, they are trying to go broad and less focused not necessarily an easy way to get into the mind file.
In 1920 Harley-Davidson Motorcycles was the largest motorcycle manufacture. Then in the 1970’s it was the vehicle of choice for the Hells Angels and unsavory law breakers. Today, its retro image has tapped into a new market of nostalgic, older and wealthier consumers reliving their youth. This would not be possible if the brand didn’t stay true to it roots and to its original mind file.
GM, the world’s largest automaker with sales of over $178 billion (5th largest company in the world) is facing a critical point in its evolution. The question is can it evolve quick enough to respond to the economic realties today and into the future? The GM brand has always had the image of the Big Car Company – the Buick, the Cadillac and most recently the mammoth Hummer. The European and the Asian automakers always started small and build up to reach the American market. GM always started big and slowly worked its way down to the mid-size. The problem today is big means unsustainable from both an economic and environmental perspective. If this were a wine I would drink it today with fear that tomorrow it could be vinegar. It will be difficult to shift GM’s brand values to new market realities but if it connects with its changing consumer it will succeed. A company of this stature understands its core brand values. I hope.
Building a brand on opposing destructive practices or human rights abuses is very noble and good for business. The immediate result is identifying your brand with those with the same viewpoint. Generally, social causes are highly charged with polarized viewpoints like the topic of abortion. So you will immediately attract a following but you will also repel those with the apposing view. You win some …you loss some.
One of the positive attributes of hanging (another human controversy) your brand with a cause is the public relations that can be generated for your brand. Media isn’t interested in writing about your product but throw in a controversial topic like global warming and animal test and now you have a story. If you align your brand with a well oiled NGO like Greenpeace, you have access to their media and PR expertise. And they know how to engineer a story.
The successful brands that have wrapped themselves around social activism generally have a controversial figurehead who is out spoken and willing to make a social point. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop is a case in point. She ran many controversial marketing campaigns including working with Greenpeace to help “Save the Whales” then switched to Friends of the Earth following a disagreement with Greenpeace.
Lululemon Athletica, a clothing retailer and manufacture of yoga inspired clothing has taken a less controversial approach focusing on human wellness and environmental awareness. They offer yoga classes to staff and customers and wrap the brand with a public manifesto, code of conduct including specific codes for the workplace (i.e., no child labour) and a vision touting "creating components for people to live longer, healthier, and more fun lives". This high ethical standard got them into some hot water last year when The New York Times reported their seaweed based Vitasea fabric was no different than cotton. Lululemon subsequently removed all health claims from its seaweed based products.
Social conscious branding requires a passion beyond just building a superior product it is about standing-up against a social atrocity. It will also redirect energies away from the core business. The more relevant the cause is to what your brand represents the stronger the relationship. For example, The Body Shops involvement with “Save the Whales” is a harder concept to tie to natural beauty products than banning the use of animal testing in cosmetics. The Lululemon focus on health-consciousness also makes perfect sense but the environmental aspect it harder to grasp even if they have reusable shopping bags.
The moral of this story is controversy and passion on a social cause can help sell products and build a unique brand but be ready to attract only like-minded customers and be prepared to handle strong and sometime vocal opposition as you are no longer a private person but a capitalist pig making money of the backs of others.
Is this a trick question? It shouldn’t be. Well, maybe it is. The answer should of course be the customer. It’s the experience they have with the brand. It’s their relationship and perception. As a marketer, we must protect the brand and understand the brand’s promise so we don’t screw-up the relationship between the customer and the brand. We have to understand the psychological connection, so we can continue to emulate what keeps them coming and hopeful attract new customers along the way.
Which came first the product or the brand? Without a product there is no brand experience. Can you control the experience from the beginning? You can try but many brands are built by loyal and faithful customers. You can create the environment but in many cases you cannot control how they will use the product. Case in point, Coca Cola started as a patent medicine that claimed to cure many diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache and impotence.
Like relationships, some must change over time. A brand manager must understand where the brand is in a relationship to the shifts of its customer. Daily consumption, versus monthly, versus every few years will also change the dynamics and depth of the relationship (i.e., purchasing a Polar Ice Diamond ring versus a Gillette disposal razor . The size of the perceived risk will also change or affect the brand relationship (i.e., a chocolate bar versus a car).
Betty Crocker, (not a real person but a brand), the revered expert on cake making going back to 1921, stumbled when they changed their cake mix recipe in the 1950’s. Producing a “just add water” product had their loyal following reject it outright. It seemed the brand managers of Betty Crocker didn’t understand the brand experience; by creating the mindless cake mix, the baker’s role in the process was reduced to nothing. The brand insight was that to bake a cake was to show appreciation to one’s family. Making it a mindless effort eliminated the appreciation towards the baker.
Another famous marketing blunder was the Coca Cola Company’s attempt to change Coke’s recipe in 1985. While the new formulation was intensively researched for tastability, no one had asked the customer how they would feel if they took away their original coke, a recipe that had been started in 1886. The backlash and PR nightmare forced Coca Cola Company to reintroduce the classic Coke and rename the new Coke to Coke II.
Well, two months have passed – quickly. I am now hooked on this idea of posting my thoughts on a regular basis. I am getting a handful of regular viewers (you might be one of them – thanks again for your interest) with the number of unique visitors progressively growing.
This month I have been spending time trying to build the visibility of my blog with the various directories and search engines. I recently made the top 20 list of Blogged under blogs tag with ‘branding.’ This blog is in 19th position with a “very good” rating (7.5/10). Blogged editors review, rate and categorize blogs so people can find quality blogs.
The CEO and founder of SEOmoz's, know as “Randfish,” has complied a great list of 21 tactics to increase blog traffic. I have followed most of his recommendations. I have also added a Google sitemap to my blog to help the spiders find my site. There is also another great reference source written by Robert Woodhead, called SelfPromotion. SelfPromotion.com provides matter-of-fact information on how you can do a better job of promoting your site.
I have also posted several new articles on two article submission websites:
The “wow” factor can have huge emotive power and can have immense brand influence. It’s the head turning visual or the sound that stops you in your tracks. It’s intensely impactful and memorable.
A “wow” brand gets noticed for its desirability and its aesthetic value. I am not talking about sensationalism like United Colors of Benetton controversial advertising campaigns of the past. I am talking about the ability of transfixing your desire to want for the sake of wanting. The “wow” brand propels you to want to be a part of something unique and admirable.
The “wow” factor can be created by the product, the front-line customer interaction the product adverting, and public relations. The most successful “wow” comes from all these interactions and touch points to build the brand experience.
Apple’s iPod is an example of the “wow” factor. The white wires that hang from customers ears say it all. There were other mp3 players that were better and cheaper but didn’t have the “wow” factor. All the brand elements worked together to build the “wow.’ Even when you plugged it in and placed the earphones into your ear lobe the word “wow” rung in your head. The “wow” reflects the product sleek design, the product packing and the memorable advertising. When the iPod was launched in 2001 the media described it as “sexy new gadget” and “eye-catching industrial design.”
A great number of products miss the importance of the “wow” and how powerful it can be to move the masses emotionally and physically. The advertising is only the final piece to the puzzle. If you think the advertising is going to create the “wow”, think again. So many brands have died on fantastic creative. As the old saying goes “advertising can get the customer to the door but can’t make them buy.’
The T. Eaton Company of over 90 department stores across Canada is a sad example of trying to reengineer a formidable brand that began in 1867 and became a cornerstone of the country’s cultural landscape. The company began a $100 million store renovation program after numerous years of bad marketing decisions and aggressive competition. During this time they ran an expensive advertising campaign targeted to teenagers and young adults. The theme was “Diversity” and focused with the imagery of “urban punk.’ They all ran high fashion advertising targeted to wealth buyers. In essence, the company advertised its new brand before it fixed up the old stores; so when people walked into the store they didn’t see what the ads portrayed. In 2002 the company closed it doors forever.
The “wow” factor is the glue that creates the emotional connection. It creates the buzz and makes the product relevant. When executed properly, it can create a life-long connection – remember the Macintosh personal computer 1984 TV commercial that ran only once!
Ultimately, emotional connection will come from positive shared experiences with the brand over time.
Published in 1999, Rolf Jensen’s book, The Dream Society, explores the concept of the commercialization of emotions. Jensen says that it will no longer be enough to produce a useful product. He shows that, to be successful, the primary purpose of a product will be its ability to fulfill an emotional need. Those marketers who understand the workings of the dream society will be the ones who create the new products, new markets and new businesses that dominate the world of tomorrow. In this book, Jensen identifies six emerging emotion-based markets:
• Adventure • Community (togetherness, friendship and love) • Providing and receiving care • Self-expression (“Who-Am-I?”) • Peace of mind • Standing for something (convictions)
These could be the bases for your “wow” factored brand.
For a quarter century, Madonna Louise Ciccone has continued to engage and astonish us, the undisputed master of pushing the envelope and redefining her art. She continues to mesmerize her audiences and keep herself relevant in a world full of young media hunger aspiring music stars. This spring Madonna was again on the cover of Vanity Fair; her 10th appearance since 1986. For a woman turning 50 this year she looks as sexy as ever with a well toned body. Her career has been as much about selling sex and building a global brand as it has been about her artistic talent. Her enduring secret is the ability to continually reinvent herself and create the right amount of media hype to keep her in the limelight and on the music charts. This is a brand that is still evolving and hasn’t reach maturity yet, it is best to keep this one vertical to see what may come next.
It’s a known fact that sex sells. But does it build lasting brands? If you ask Calvin Klein, he would say yes. Over a 2.5* billion dollar business built on provocative and sexual images isn’t bad.
For years, cars, beer, perfume and recently, deodorants have been sold to males through images of scantily-clad, perfectly sculptured woman. Tapping into the basic instincts of man - sex is a universal interest. Watch a beautiful woman walk down a street and you will notice others following her every step. Sexy images drive eye balls (especially men’s who think about sex every 7 seconds!)**.
Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch markets its sexual brand image to college-age adults but ends-up attracting many younger teens (including my 12 and 16-year-old kids). Not only do they show beautiful youth in their advertising, but they hire the best-looking, young people to model their clothes in the stores. They made sure the brand lives not only in the advertising but in the stores. I wish beer stores respected the brand the same way.
Sex comes with many risks (including rashes and bumps in areas that we don’t want to talk about). Klein doesn’t apologize for pushing the envelope in what is deemed decent and what isn’t. "Sometimes people look at the advertising and resent it or feel threatened by what they see — but in the end, if the sales are good, the images must be OK," Klein said. The fact is CK’s men’s underwear owns the underwear market ever since Mark Wahlberg wore nothing but. Both Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch continue to walk the fine line between sexy and soft core porn. Consumer groups have launched boycott campaigns against both companies over the years and have successfully had campaigns removed from public viewing. Just recently, the Virginia Beach police seized photos from an Abercrombie store that were deemed indecent. See story.
The fact is beautiful airbrushed, naked people can help sell products and build a sexually compelling brand. Dove had recently taken a different approach by showcasing their products on naked, everyday, wholesome women, so maybe we’re not as superficial after all. They did get bad press when it was leaked that they digitally enhanced some of the women’s images to make them better looking. OK maybe we are superficial.
Sexy is an easy way to accomplish edginess and draw attention, but does it fulfill your brand promise and is it sustainable? Just make sure you use this power wisely and don’t flaunt it unnecessarily or it could do more damage than good to your brand. Remember; over-promising can only lead to disappointment and negative feelings which aren’t brand builder.
Your audience will always have the final say and they’ll tell you at the till. So provoke, shock and engage, because as long as your audience has given you permission, they’ll eat it up like a Coolwhip® bikini.
*1996 was the only sales figure I could find as the company was private until sold to Phillips Van Heusen Corp. in 2002. **Kinsey Institute’s disputes this claim; they state that 54% of men think about sex every day or several times a day and 43% a few times per month or a few times per week.
Like Henry Ford, Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s restaurants, engineered the operational excellence of producing mass quantities of fast food burgers to the world. While I grew up with the classic Big Mac it was still a novelty as there were few outlets in Canada. But all of my children grew-up with a healthy (ok, unhealthy) appetite for Chicken McNuggets. Well the competition have easily imitated (and in some cases better) their operational excellences with faster, more choices and ever changing menus, none has surpassed McDonald’s branding power and advertising prowess ($1.6 billion in 2006). McDonald’s is the master of the McDeals: happy meals, values meals, super sizing, and anything Mc. Ronald McDonald awareness is just as high as Santa Claus among children in North America. Even after the movie “Super Size Me” they remain the world’s largest fast food burger chain with over 31,000 restaurants and 47 million customers daily. In 2007, they posted a record $23 billion in revenues. The average US Micky D’s saw 15% increase in store sales, despite the healthy eating trend (maybe it is only a trend). Like sweet fruity wine, McDonald’s has perfected the right amount of sugar and salt to keep its customer craving their next Mac attack (or heart attack – which ever comes first).
I am a connoisseur of fine brands. Like a Sommeliers, I will take my brand appreciation and insights and share my knowledge and opinion in savoring the many brands that identify our lives. Cheers!
This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own views. The opinions shared in this space do not necessarily represent the opinions of my employer. Additionally, all photos that appear on this site are copyrighted by their respective owners. I claim no credit for the images unless otherwise noted. If you own the rights to any of the images and do not wish for them to appear on this site please contact me and the images will be promptly removed.
O Canada, my home and native land was recently ranked second behind Australia in a survey of the best national brands, according to tourism and branding experts FutureBrand. The ranking is based on establishing a reputation as a safe, friendly destination for families. Having lived most of my life in Canada, I can only clearly understand the brand from a distance. Seeing your country from another country demonstrates the difference. At the end of the day, I do love my country and its brand promise. Eh!
Probably not.
Xerox 
Kodak 
Harley-Davidson
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